01-07-2016, 11:47 PM -
(01-07-2016, 06:26 PM)Brendan Dassey Wrote: Swansea appoint Alan Curtis until the end of the season.
Good chance they'll go down.
The sacking of Monk looks even more ridiculous now, why not give him time to turn it around?! He's shown he can do it last season.
Because it wasn't going to turn around. They gave him enough time until the situation became totally untenable: as evidenced by his final MOTD interview, in which he wasn't waving, but drowning. When managers know they've reached the end, they speak in code in interviews like that. Mourinho was just the same after the Leicester game.
Had they left Monk in despite that, they'd be in an even worse position now. They've improved under Curtis because the players are with him. Trouble is, he's not very good; they've lost all edge and sharpness in their play. I agree they'll probably go down now.
(01-07-2016, 08:04 PM)Charlie Kelly Wrote: Apparently Swansea are getting the Chile boss at the end of the season.
Not if they're in the Championship, they won't.
The candidates Swansea have tried to persuade are all good, bold ones, exactly in line with Huw Jenkins' vision for the club: Bielsa, Emery, Sampaoli. But none of them speak English; Swansea are, after all, only Swansea; and quality managers do not like coming into a club mid-season. Look at the gibberish on here about Klopp being "worse than Rodgers": it isn't Klopp's team, and he has a whole bunch of players who've never played remotely in the way he wants to play.
Two years ago, when Norwich couldn't decide whether to stick or twist with Chris Hughton, we had the same problem as Swansea are having now. No-one we wanted was prepared to jump ship mid-season. The resultant fudge, in which we neither backed nor sacked Hughton, relegated us. Then we turned our attention to Alex Neil that summer, immediately after Hamilton had been promoted; but at that stage, it was still too early, too much of a risk. Had to wait for him to prove himself in the SPL too, which he did.
But on Sampaoli: I'm having an incredibly hard time envisaging him leaving the South American Champions for Swansea City even if they stay up. If and when he moves to Europe, it can't be for such a low profile club. Too much of a risk for him if you ask me.
(01-07-2016, 09:48 PM)Bert Le Clos Wrote: Lopetegui apparently sacked by Porto.
Yes, I saw that that was likely the other day. Seems incredibly harsh from a distance: they're 2nd in the table. But they won nothing last season, Lopetegui's had their biggest ever budget, and Porto are accustomed to Mourinho/Villas-Boas/Robson levels of dominance.
The real story in Portuguese football has been the extraordinary impact of Jorge Jesus in recent years. First he took Benfica to two consecutive Europa League Finals and ended Porto's stranglehold domestically. Then, like some latter day version of Bela Guttmann, their greatest ever manager, who reportedly placed a curse on Benfica when he left the club, Jesus unbelievably jumped ship in the summer for Sporting Lisbon. There is no precedent for that whatever in modern football: no other manager has ever gone directly to a major European club's crosstown rivals.
Sporting are now four points clear in Portugal and heading for the title. Jesus is doing for them what Robson would've done had Sporting not absurdly fired him in 1993/4; or what Mourinho would've done for Benfica had their President not made the biggest mistake of his life and fired him in 2000. As for Lopetegui: given he's now available, Swansea could do a lot worse than making a bid for him, but I guess he probably wouldn't be interested.
This post was last modified: 01-07-2016, 11:58 PM by shaun.lawson.